>> well, we were certainly aware of the increasing threat environment. i not only was briefed on that, i testified to that effect. and there were constant evaluations going on. but no one, not the ambassador, security professionals, the intelligence community ever recommended closing that mission. and the reason they didn't was because the ongoing threat environment had up until the spring before our terrible attack in benghazi been a result of post-conflict conditions. that is something that we're familiar with all over the world. yes, there were some attacks, as you have said, but our evaluation of them and the recommendation by the security professionals was that those were all manageable because we had a lot of that around the world. i mean, there is a long list of attacks that have been foiled, assassination plots that have been prevented. so this is not some -- you know, one off event. this is considered in an atmosphere of a lot of threats and dangers. and at the end of the day, you know, there was a decision made that this would be evaluated but